My NEW Meal Planning Method

They all left the house at 6:50am this morning so Dave could make sure the girls knew exactly where their classes were, find their lockers, and so he could finish up a few last minute things in his classroom.

The house is silent for the first time in over a week… I’m definitely NOT complaining!

And with the start of yet another school year, the addition of 2 international students, a few more house projects to complete, and a baby on the way; I am absolutely adamant about planning ahead this year!

Last night we packed all their lunches, picked out clothes, decided what they would eat for breakfast, took showers, and got all their bags ready to go. We were prepared, and things went very smoothly this morning.

So even though I still have TONS of different recipes to choose from each night, I now have a “guide” to go by.

I’ve been planning our meals this way for a few weeks now and it has been much easier to mix up my recipes. I’m hoping it will prevent me from sliding into a “rut” of making pasta or a casserole every night!

How I Choose My Recipes Each Week:

Step #7 is to plan our meals — so when I get to that step, I follow my “themes” for each night and choose recipes based on what we already have in the house and what’s on sale at the store that week. I choose recipes from my physical recipe box, from my virtual recipe box, different blogs I follow, and from a variety of meal-planning website. I try my best to mix things up each week {which you all know is easier said than done!}

Once I have my recipes picked out, I write them down using my One Week Vertical Menu Planner {you can see all my menu planners here} and then I use that menu planner to add any additional items to my shopping list for the week.

My goal is to only go to the store one time each week — and usually I’m pretty successful with that!

So that is what we’re doing this year — and I hope it continues to work well. I’ll keep you updated on any tweaks or changes I make, and I would love to know…

Heidi Helman

07/07/2012

You have so helped me out so much with this simplified way of meal planning!!!

I have a 3 month old baby boy and a TENACIOUS little 2.5 year old daughter, so getting a meal on the table by 7:00 is exciting. I would have the intension of planning specific meals but it was too narrow a target to try to hit. I set this up new way of looking at it as themes and it has been SOOOO much easier!

I found your site threw Pinterest. I have been trying to implement meal planning into our lives, but for some reason the concept just did not click for me. I would end up planning on like 4 nights of pizza and then get bored of it after 2-3 days. Which led to waste. Or I varied it too much and ended up with a large grocery bill from so many varied ingredients. Themes make so much sense! I am off to revolutionize my life! Thank you!

I have seen a few people do this in blog land. (have certain nights for certain things) I normally just plan our meals around what’s on sale at the grocery store. But i’m really considering making “nights” for us too. It just seems like it would make things easier! I hope your Hubby has a great first day back at teaching and the girls have a great first day at school!